Follow Friday: @cryptoblood_

For this week’s Follow Friday, we spoke to @cryptoblood_. He’s a crypto enthusiast who’s active on Twitter and runs a YouTube series uploading daily videos.

Before entering the cryptocurrency market, @cryptoblood_ was running a web development company (which he still runs) as well as a commodity trading advisory firm. Unsurprisingly, this is what “led to my interest in BTC when I first found out about it”.

The two components appear ideally suited to the technical and financial nature of Bitcoin. “Late one night in late 2012, I was reading a Zerohedge article and I saw the concept of Bitcoin, and I literally went out that night to purchase some. Back then, there were no exchanges, so I had to go through CBS (a drug store in the US). I send a money order to Charlie Shrem’s company BitInstant and they credited my account on MT Gox”.

The influence of 2008

Despite entering the world of Bitcoin in late 2012, it wasn’t until a year and a half ago that @cryptoblood_ turned his attention to YouTube. This came about because he was “so excited that my dad was finally allowing me to get him into cryptocurrencies. Since 2012 I’ve been trying. I told him to buy a little bit but he never got around to it because he didn’t understand the concept”.

@cryptoblood_ sees this as the biggest impediment “for most people still to this day. There is a knowledge gap because they don’t understand what money is, and more importantly they don’t understand what sound money is. My dad said he would go ahead and set it up in the end, and so I did a video in my car heading over to help him with it”. This excitement and passion for cryptocurrencies is still evident in his videos today.

For @cryptoblood_ himself, it was the 2008 financial crisis that sparked him into life. “When 2008 came, that was really the start of me waking up and going down the rabbit hole. I guess before I had virgin eyes when it came to financial markets. I was all about equities and investing, but then 08′ came and something was clearly terribly wrong with the system. I started learning what was going on with the system and what was wrong with it, so that really initiated my education in that arena.”

The cryptocurrency community

With his YouTube platform, @cryptoblood_ has to wrestle with the issue of paid shilling. Like others, he takes a very practical view of the situation. When I asked if there is an ethical way to shill, he says “I guess.” For him, “anytime I have a sponsored interview or review it is disclosed, and the reason why I always did that is because I want people to know when I’m talking about something financially motivated and when I’m not”. That disclosure brings clarity for the viewers.

Whilst he finds “a lot of positivity on Twitter”, YouTube is a different kettle of fish. “People on my YouTube comments section say some real nasty stuff that normally wouldn’t be said on Twitter. They are able to hide a bit more on YouTube, so you get more comments that are trollish”.

When not focusing on cryptocurrencies or the wider financial market, the self-confessed finance geek spends time with his daughter and wife and enjoys cycling in the summer. However, his other passion lies in cigars. “I consider myself a cigar aficionado, so I go to a lot of different cigar bars.”

Like my previous Follow Friday @dum, one moment that stands out for @cryptoblood_ was the positive affect of the Dogecoin community. “I was really active in the Dogecoin community, and I couldn’t believe we actually sent a Jamaican bobsleigh team to the Olympics. Then we sponsored the NASCAR driver. Those two moments were unreal. This was in the early days as well before any cryptocurrency was popular”.

For newcomers to the space, he has some simple advice. “Focus on utility and actual use cases. Look for those projects that aren’t just promising something. That’s why in 2017, I was so excited for 2018. We could see what projects could prove what was actually coming. Look for working projects that are trying hard to have that working product and gain users”.

The future

@cryptoblood_ wasn’t surprised by the bear market that arrived in 2018. “I said at the start of 2018 that it feels like 2014, and that’s exactly what it is and will probably be for another year. This bear market might last a little longer than the previous one just because there is more money that has been destroyed and more people that have been affected, even though percentage-wise its been the same for retracement, but I do feel it will be longer this time around”.

As for further future predictions, he is hesitant on price suggestions, as “anyone that can confidently predict the price of Bitcoin in five years is an idiot. You just don’t know”. What he does predict though is that “we will see STOs becoming very popular in 2019”. He also adds that “gaming and blockchain” will become very popular in the long run.

You can find @cryptoblood_’s Twitter here and YouTube here. Don’t forget to check out his content – he’s a top fella.